The Chinchilla Project
by MostDefinitelyFlorentine
Summary: What would be the worst possible pet for Percy to receive on his birthday? Well, it certainly ain't a dog, I'll tell you that much.../Short multichap. Happy birthday, ExceedinglyPeculiarChick!
1. Something Gray and Furry

**A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EXCEEDINGLYPECULIARCHICK! This one goes out to you—yes, you are so awesome that you get my first PJO multichap. Don't you feel special? Well, you should. Buckets of thanks to wombat-of-awesomeness, who helped me edit the first three chapters. You truly are an awesome wombat.**

"Taa-daa! Happy birthday, Percy!" Annabeth beamed, eyes alight as she presented him with her present. The campers leaned in, eager to see what his girlfriend got him on his special day.

Percy, actually, was quite exhausted after the Olympic-sized meal (and Percy knew what he was talking about there) and all the pictures. In his opinion, everyone was making his eighteenth birthday too big a deal. Still, he smiled as enthusiastically as possible, and accepted the large box from Annabeth.

It was getting rather late, yet the buoyant, colorful flames of the campfire were showing no signs of dying down. It was only Percy who wanted to sleep so badly.

"Go on, open it!" she urged, obviously excited at what was in the package. So far, he'd gotten a compact sleeping bag from Tyson that was incredibly comfortable and folded up to the size of a single square of ambrosia at the slightest command; a sword-cleaning kit from his mentor, Chiron; blue candy from his mom, even though she was far away from working at that old candy store again; silly putty from Travis and Connor Stoll; a banana peel from Clarisse, who had been having trouble keeping a straight face; and assorted other things from the rest of the campers.

Thus far, he was having an excellent day—for one, he was exempt from cabin cleaning in the morning, and Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin and the Stoll brothers offered to do his chores for him this afternoon, which had turned out to be a grave mistake. The satyrs were still occasionally bursting into bouts of Leo-style "THE HILLLLLS ARE ALIIIIIIVE, WITH THE SOOOUND OF MUUUUSIC…"

And on top of it all, he got to spend the entire day with Annabeth, which brought him back to the present (pun intended) and the box in his lap.

He paused for a moment to look at it, for he just now noticed small holes on the top and sides. Almost… breathing holes. The box emitted a sudden shuffling noise, making Percy jump with surprise. Annabeth laughed. "Go on, silly!"

Reluctantly, he undid the gaudy bow on top and peeled off the SpongeBob Squarepants wrapping paper to reveal a plain beige box, still with breathing holes. The shuffling became even more insistent.

He huffed with apprehension, and Annabeth took this as a breath of excitement. "What're you waiting for?" she encouraged.

_Here goes nothing_, he thought, and lifted a tiny corner of the box. Immediately something gray and furry jumped out and latched onto his face.

"ARGH! GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" he screamed, and about five campers lunged forward to pull the thing off his face. When the creature calmed down, Percy leaned in for a closer look.

_Oh, Annabeth…_ he thought. You gave me a hamster.


	2. Anastasia, the Great Chinchilla

**A/N: So, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed or favorited Chapter one… LET ME LOVE YOU. So, without further ado, here is the next installment of EPC's birthday fic. SQUEEEEE…**

The thing hissed and growled at him as menacingly as an oversized rodent possibly could, bristling with its fluffy gray fur sticking straight up.

"Man," Percy heard one of the campers say, "That is one wigged-out chinchilla."  
Percy couldn't agree more (_so it's a CHINCHILLA, he thought)_, and was about to do just that, but quickly remembered that it was Annabeth who gave it to him, and he certainly didn't want to disappoint her.

"I—I love it," he said, forcing himself to smile for her. Her face lit up.

"I knew you would like it! Hermes said that this was the best one on the Olympus Market!" she said, stroking the horrid creature. "Oh, isn't he just adorable?"

"Yeah—wait—Olympus Market? Annabeth, is this a _magical_ chinchilla?" he asked, alarmed.

"Yes, I'm not sure what it does, though," she said, still petting the creature, which now seemed to be purring. Hold on—did chinchillas purr? "Oh, isn't he sweet?" she cooed. "What will you name him?"

Percy most certainly could _not _think of an appropriate name for the thing, but for a very different reason than what Annabeth may think.

"Ooh, how about Anastasia?" she said. "Isn't that _such _a pretty name?"

The chinchilla seemed to have some sort of magical hold on her emotions, because she definitely didn't usually act like this.

"Annabeth…" he started, squinting at its private parts. "It's a boy…."

But it was too late. "Anastasia, Anastasia, you like that, don't you?" Percy had a strong feeling that she was talking to the animal. "Ana, Ana…"

Oh, Gods.

Ana warbled with his eyes closed as Annabeth stroked his fur. Percy looked at it with what could best be described as disgust. Stupid fluffy rodent.

Ana's eyes popped open with the force of a Venus flytrap and he squirmed around so he could glare at Percy. _What the heck?_

"Is he…"

Annabeth interrupted him. "You should take him for a walk! I'll get a leash from Chiron!"

And with that, she plopped Anastasia down on his lap and ran off to the Big House.  
_And why would Chiron have a chinchilla leash? _There were many questions that he still had, but Annabeth was long gone, screaming, "CHIRON! PERCY NEEDS A LEASH FOR HIS CHINCHILLA!"

The campers groaned.


	3. A Relaxing Walk Amongst the Verdure

**A/N: Well, well, well, thank you for the reviews! Happy Birthday yet again, Emma. Love you!**

* * *

"Here, let me get that… it was a bad idea to even think about walking the chinchilla…"

Percy was currently sitting on the front porch of the Big House as Will from the Apollo cabin dabbed the gashes on Percy's face with nectar. The latter had just finished recounting the details of the morning's walk with Anastasia. Fun, fun. Not.

It had taken roughly fifteen minutes to wrestle Ana to the ground and squeeze him into the pink Vera Bradley lead and harness, with both Percy and Annabeth sustaining serious injuries in the process.

With some trepidation, Chiron decided that it would be best if they walked Ana far away from the main activities so as to not… ah, distract the other campers.

But Percy would not go anywhere with Ana unless he had thorough armor and weaponry. By the time he was done arming himself, he had a flyswatter in one hand ("So I can smack it!"), Ana's leash in the other, a soup pot on his head as a helmet (the contents of the armory had seemed to mysteriously disappear overnight), and a purple Dora the Explorer pillow strapped to his chest. He was, as Clarisse did not fail to mention (rather impolitely, one might add), quite a sight to behold.

Ana was bristling at the sight of anyone and everyone, eliciting Piper's response as thus: "Oh, the poor darling, he must be scared!"

Percy hadn't thought he was.

Needless to say, the "walk" was an absolute disaster, with Percy pausing occasionally to smack Ana with the flyswatter to prevent him from letting loose on the Demeter cabin's hydrangeas.

It was per Annabeth's request that Percy teach Ana a few parlor tricks to amuse the campers. And to the likes of Clarisse, watching Percy get beat up by a fuzzy rodent in a pink Vera Bradley lease was supremely entertaining.

So basically, half the walk was spent with Percy yelling, "HEEL! HEEL! NO! OFF THE MARIGOLDS! HEE… whoop, that's poop."

So here Percy was, bearing scratches and scrapes in front of the entire camp.  
Whoopee.

_This couldn't possibly get any worse_, he thought, which of course is a very bad thing to say or even think, as the situation was bound to get considerably less pleasant.

He thought it couldn't get worse.

It did.


End file.
